Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg (born in 1968 in Sparkhill, Birmingham, England), is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S. government for nearly three years. The Pentagon claimed Begg was an enemy combatant and al-Qaeda member, recruited others for al-Qaeda, provided money and support to al-Qaeda training camps, received extensive military training in al-Qaeda-run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and prepared to fight U.S. or allied troops. While Begg admits spending time at two Islamic militant training camps in Afghanistan, supporting militant Muslim fighters, buying a rifle and a handgun, that he "thought about" taking up arms in Chechnya, and being an acquaintance of people linked to terrorism (most notably, Khalil al-Deek, Dhiren Barot, and Shahid Akram Butt), he denies the remainder of the U.S.'s allegations. Begg says that when he was incarcerated at Bagram, though not in Guantanamo Bay to which he was later moved, he was hog-tied, kicked, punched, and left in a room with a bag put over his head, even though he suffered from asthma. A Pentagon spokesman said there was "no credible evidence that Begg was ever abused by U.S. forces". Begg has also spoken of having witnessed two other detainees being beaten to death while detained at Bagram.
